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My silence does not indicate lack of interest; in fact I have, like so many others, remained glued to the tragedy that is the United States of America. Each day it seems there is some new ‘thing’, some new chaotic stew of childishness, some immoral or cruel act from those who would be leaders. Each morning I waken to worse and coarser communication bombarding me from every corner of the world. Every single night I crawl into my bed and wonder if the world will see another morning, with heightened levels of fear, for my nation, my friends, children and grandchildren I wonder what we will be left with in three years. Hell, some nights I wonder what, if anything, we will be left with in three months let alone three years.

Do you think I am being dramatic? Really, do you not wonder the same things I wonder?
I am constantly stunned by the level of depravity and craven corruption that is now our entire body politic. One side has their Inglorious Leader, why hide? Do not for one minute believe though, I am pointing at one party and leaving the other out of this, no indeed both are equally shady and own the corruption that is this dissolute hell the United States of America is now become.

The President of the United States is an antagonistic, juvenile delinquent with the mindset of a schoolyard bully who has never been told NO. Meanwhile, the Republican controlled Congress chip away at our Freedoms, chisel away at our rights, our economy, our Democracy; at the very foundation of what makes our nation Great and none of us are paying a bit of attention. Each and every single day, we sit staring at our electronic devices, bitching and whining at the latest tweet by that fool that is POTUS, while Congress has their way with us without a single cry being raised.

So I have to ask, with all the warnings we have been given by their acts, their words and the clarion call of those who have watched Presidents since before the days of Nixon and his fall, if not now when?

When do men and women of dignity, morals and ethics finally say enough; when do they say, no damned more. Where are they perhaps is the better question.

When do these lost men and women say, pack your bags, turn in your badge and carry your happy and undignified asses out of my House (Congress, Senate) before you embarrass this nation further than you have. No more with your dog whistles, your stunts, your ignorant statements of patriotism, your blatant and ugly hypocrisy,

Washington D.C Skyline

no more tearing our nations foundations up by the roots, no more of your terrible families, your corruption, your sycophant ways, no more of your bullying, your nationalism, your pseudo Christianity and worst your followings and encouragement of Nazi’s, White Supremacists, Xenophobic Nationalists. I am certain my list could be longer, this is simply the tip of the iceberg, the very tip. This list applies not just to the current occupant of the White House, but members of his legal team, Congress, Senate, his advisers, Family and Friends, Spokespersons, Cabinet and Media mouthpieces.

Our nation is more divided than ever before and we simply sit and twiddle our thumbs bemoan our situation remind ourselves that he is not legitimate as Madam Secretary Clinton won the popular vote (so what). Or even worse, that Bernie was cheated (no he wasn’t).

Truly my silence does not indicate a lack of interest. My silence has been self-imposed, my psyche shut down and I drew a blank each time I tried to write. I have over hundred half written odes to the state of the union in my file, I simply could not finish them. I have over fifty poems, I could not finish my heart was breaking as our nation shattered. I have over fifty simple bridges of what is happening with my world, to break the silence and reenter the world; I could not finish them my writers block built a wall I could not scale. I am beating it down today, I am speaking today. Maybe I will speak again tomorrow. I hope you, my friends are still out there as there is much to say.

Like this:

The House is such a lovely group of ne’er-do- wells’ it is difficult to believe this is the braintrust leading our nation. Lest I be too focused on those dunderheads in The House, The Senate will apparently follow them down the path of running grandma over with the Bentley. The President has already signaled he too wants to get the hell out of Washington, so he will get his signature pen ready versus his Veto pen and guess what, they will all be happy.

Don’t piss down my leg and call it rain.

Here are some of the highlights of what the Congressional House Republicans and Democrats voted on last night round about 11pm when most of the rest of us were fast asleep and paying no never mind to their high handedness.

Dodd-Frank, yes sir they gutted it. Don’t know what this is, shaking your head and saying so what are you? Well remember when the banks nearly failed in 2008 and we the people, the taxpayers, all of us that is had to bail them out. Do you remember that? I surely do, people lost their savings, their homes, their jobs and some of those people are still jobless and homeless. Remember that time, prior to this administration being sworn into office 9 January 2009.

Campaign Finance, can’t ever say these greedy SOB’s aren’t looking out for number one, no indeed not. Never say never, can you say Citizens United on steroids; if not learn to and post haste. They have taken out their best carving knives and shredded the McCain-Feingold legislation of 2002 that limited individual donors to $32,400 to either party this year would be able to up the ante, not by a few measly thousand dollars but by a whopping ten times (10X) the current limit to $324,000. How is that for feathering your own nest.

Egypt gets a $1.3 billion in aid, subject to Democracy and Human Rights conditions. Well my question is, who the hell in this country is fit to measure either.

The EPA gets another $60 Million cut from their budget, down in total 21% since 2010. According the Budget Office and gleeful GOP aides they will have to cut staffing, taking them to the lowest levels since 1989.

Cuyahoga River burns due to chemicals and pollution

Once again, the Budget bans the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to any current facility in the US and bans the spending of any federal funds to build a facility to house them.

Again, the US continues to spend billions to fund Israel, to the tune of $3.1 Billion in random aid in addition to $619 Million in defense aid. Not to be gauche here, however Israel has their own economy and it is fairly healthy, if they would stop trying to steal what small bit of land and peace remains to the Palestinian people it would likely be healthier still. There is no one starving in Israel, there is no need for us to continue to give them billions of our tax dollars every year, especially when those dollars could go to things we need here in this country for our own people.

I love this one, simply because there are so many of those Tea Partiers and Libertarians running about screaming, “Small Government” and “Self-Determination” and “States Rights”, I guess they didn’t really mean it. This lovely bars Washington, District of Columbia from legalizing marijuana. Now keep in mind there was a vote, the people of the District approved the initiative and like Colorado and Washington, citizens of the District should be able to smoke a blunt on their porch. But nooooo, the members of the United States House of Representatives forgot, they are only guests in Washington, D.C. not residents.

The list goes on and on, there is more. The cut funding on key education initiatives, they continue their ridiculous Abortion oversight moving it to the ACA to require all policies offered on the Federal Marketplace have a declaration whether they cover Abortions so people can decide for themselves not to buy that policy. They cut additional funds to the ACA, for the ‘Death Panels’.

There are some good things, expansion of sexual assault services for the military and expansion of Veterans Benefits. There is also the funds targeted to fight Ebola and funds targeted for the National Institutes of Health, some of which will go to brain and Alzheimer’s research.

Overall, though, this Omnibus bill is simply Congress working for a C- grade. They are hoping we don’t notice what they are doing and won’t complain. They are supposed to work on these things for the entire 24 months they are in session, dealing with each of the individual budgets and government agencies as independent entities rather than creating these huge Omnibus Bills in the Lame Duck session, two weeks prior to Christmas.

Don’t piss down my leg and call it rain.

Talk about a boondoggle Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) apparently got in bed with Rio Tinto to grab native lands. Rather than doing it up front and with full transparency, he shoved in to the NDAA before congress. This little land grab of his was hidden on page 1,105 and both the Democrats and Republicans hid it from everyone until they could hide it no more. Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton would simple walk right in and start the casual destruction of 2,400 of the Tonto National Forest, which includes Apache Leap, burial grounds and other sacred lands to the Apache people.

These lands are supposed to be protected, but never mind.

Just let me say this, I am disappointed our President made a deal with the Speaker of the House on the Budget. Why in the hell did he do that? Doesn’t he know, doesn’t he understand these people hate him. They will never do a damned thing that he wants, not one damned thing. Mitch McConnell, the incoming Majority Leader of the Senate has already said, his first order of business will be a vote to overturn the ACA. Doesn’t he get it? What doesn’t he understand? Isn’t it time for him to say to these old, nasty men and women on both sides of the aisle, ‘if you send me this shit I will veto it without a second thought’.

What the hell is he waiting for? An invitation to their table? Hasn’t he figured it out yet, it is never going to happen.

We are the greatest problem in our own government at every level, we the people that is. Our lazy, pedantic manner of shuffling to the polls, pulling the lever or punching the card with no thought other than what letter is after the name, rather than considering the consequence of our vote. With our pitiful allegiance to party or even worse our zombie like love affair with those who have screwed us time and again, we know their names though and pull the lever for them as if they were members of our dysfunctional family.

We are the greatest problem with Washington, we have no one but ourselves to blame for every single bad behavior, delinquent assclownery and filibuster for fun currently occurring on the hill.

America, we truly do have a problem and that problem is us!

We are lazy, we are intellectual plodders, we are sheep who refuse to see the cliff we are running toward blindly but with great glee. We willfully wave the flag of patriotism the moment anyone suggests we might not be the “best” country in the world, yet we fail on every scale that matters to measure up to other industrialized nations. What matters you ask, how about the following:

Primary education, ranked 18th

University education, the most costly in the world

Trade Schools, the most costly in the world

Highest number of citizens held in prison for non-violent crimes (millions)

Related to this, highest number of juveniles sentenced as adults

I could go on with that list, those are just some of the highlights, poverty grows, racism runs rampant, inequity is wagging the dog and women are dancing the two-step backward with every election. The real problem though, it isn’t those clowns in the state houses, nor is it the clowns in Congress; the real problem is us.

Every single time we have the opportunity to go to the polls and exercise our right to vote, we fail to exercise our most important muscle, our mind. We have handed over the town square, kicked over the soapbox and placed our necks into the Pillory without force of arms. We are sheep, no matter whether we are pulling the lever for the ‘D’ or the ‘R’ we refuse to demand real change to the way in which our government operates, instead shaking our heads at what is directly in front of our faces.

Do you really believe the following makes any sense?

According to the CIA World Facts Book, the median age in the US is 37.2, which breaks down further to 35.9 years for men and 38.5 years for women. This is what the US Congress looks like, is it any wonder we are still fighting the same silly azzed battles over our uterus and paychecks.

Most people look forward to retirement, the average age of retirement is 61 in the US though many are working today well into their early 70’s just to make ends meet and make up for heavy losses taken during market crashes. Statistics say the average American will change jobs 10 – 15 times during their career, some will only spend 4 years in any one job. So tell me why the average Congressperson seeks tenure, a seat is theirs for life?

Average in the Senate: 10 years

Longest serving member: 39 years

Average Age: 62 * Oldest Member: 80

Average in Congress: 19 years

Longest serving member: 58 years

Average Age: 57 * Oldest Member: 90

Then there is the issue we always have to scratch our heads over, why doesn’t Congress look more like the country? I mean really, why doesn’t it look more like where you and I live and work? This is what the country generally looks like:

I know, somewhat hard to read broken up by all those states, but notice with the exception of a few states distribution of races are pretty even. So to make it easier, look at these:

Does that make it easier to see, we simply do not have a representative government. No way, no how.

Finally we come to what is most puzzling, this constant insistence to pray away every damned thing. Opening prayers to make certain God is on their side when they take food out of the mouths of the poor, when they give the wealthy another tax break, when they send young men and women to die in another thankless war on a lie. With the exception of a few, every single last solitary one of these fossilized burdens sucking on the public teat claims some form or another of Christianity, entirely ignoring the rest of their constituents and their Constitutional Rights to live without having their rights trampled by religion every time they draw breath.

So we are the problem, we allow this continue by not demanding representative government that truly and fully represents the people. We are the problem, only us not them who are gleefully rubbing their hands together with the money they earn sitting on their collective asses doing nothing, becoming millionaires while talking a good game. We are the problem when we support this type of government, which is nothing if not corrupt.

Who in their right minds believes any of this makes sense? When will we demand changes to our government that do?

You must be 25 to serve in the House and 30 to serve in the Senate, there is however no top end no retirement age. You can just continue to toddle on in there with your drool cup until you drop dead, how about we start considering the consequences? How about you must retire from elected office at 72, no more running the country sorry folks, leave it those young whippersnappers.

A Congressperson gets two years to screw things up, while a Senator gets six years. Now personally I think we should force a bit of objective thinking into this process, you can’t run for the Senate unless you have served at least one term in the House. This will weed out some of the real nutcases and move some of the better ones up the chain. Term limits are critical I think, no more seats for life this is ridiculous; three terms in the House and three terms in the Senate, that is it then it is back to the private sector with you. If you were really good you can run again for either house of Congress after one Senate term or six years, whichever comes first.

Do we run a risk with this? We might, but we run far less risk this way than we have today. What we have today is simply a FUBAR.